PROVIDENCE, R.I. — After a 13-hour sit-in outside President Rev. Brian J. Shanley's office, about 50 Providence College students protesting what they called "anti-blackness and racism on campus" ended their demonstration when Shanley agreed to make progress on the demands.

Senior Mary-Murphy Walsh, one of the sit-in's organizers, said late Tuesday night that Shanley "did promise today that he would do everything in his capacity. We will see within 20 days, we will see what he comes up with."

The agreement states that he will "demonstrate substantive progress on each of the Demands for Redress."

"I was not going to leave his office until he did put the keyword ... 'each'" in the statement," said Walsh.

After Shanley signed the agreement at about 9:45, Associate Vice President Steven J. Maurano said, "I've seen a lot of talk on social media that said Father Shanley agreed to all the students’ demands. What he agreed to do was to make progress … . And report back on March 7th."

The agreement says that Shanley will issue a comprehensive plan by 4 p.m on March 7.

According to the agreement, students will be named to a diversity committee that includes faculty and administrators; the faculty will meet next week to discuss curriculum changes and other academic matters; workshops will be scheduled on "inclusive pedagogy"; renovations of Moore Hall will move forward.

Students arrived at Harkins Hall at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and began their occupation. Shanley spoke to them shortly before 4:30 p.m. — the time college officials had told the students they had to end their protest and leave.

"I will have a plan of action by the end of the semester, a complex plan of action," Shanley told them as a video posted on Twitter shows. Several students are heard laughing at the statement.

He told the students, who said they wouldn't leave until he signed an agreement to make changes, that he wanted to put the agreement in his own words but couldn't do it "right now."

Walsh at the time said: "He said, as he always does, that action is being taken to combat racism on campus yet will not show exactly what that action is. Students refuse to accept that answer and will stay in his office all night and however long it takes for him to agree to all the demands and agree to produce a comprehensive plan within the next 20 days."

History of tension

This year's student body is 15 percent of color — 721 of the 4,774 undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students, said Maurano Tuesday. He also said that's up from 5 percent in 2005 — the year Shanley became president.

In addition, he said the college hired 12 new faculty, 7 of whom are people of color, at the beginning of the school year.

But during the last two years, students and faculty of color describe incidents at the private Catholic college where they have been stopped by security officers and asked if they belong on the campus. In November, about 75 to 100 students staged a “break the silence” demonstration.

The protesters — some wearing tape over their mouths — called for Shanley to address racism on campus, including racial epithets a protest leader said were hurled at students. The PC students were rallying in solidarity with University of Missouri students protesting racism on their campus. Their demonstration forced the university president to resign.

Late in 2015, students issued a list of demands.

Among the demands in the Dec. 19 document are requests of cultural-sensitivity training for faculty, staff and students; a revision of the western civilization curriculum by "significantly integrating the contributions of African, Asian, Native American, Latino/Latina civilizations"; and the appointment of a senior vice president for inclusion and diversity.

In an incident a couple of weeks ago, five female students of color said they were denied entrance to an off-campus party. They said water and beer bottles were thrown at them as well as racial taunts.

“I think that when the incident occurred with the five young ladies, the president should have returned from Florida and spoken with the students," said Pilar McCloud, Providence NAACP chairwoman of youth, high school and college chapters in Rhode Island.

She communicated with students Tuesday, and informed the media of the students' request.

"By staying away and coming back at his scheduled time, to me it's an open handed slap in the face and the students already had a list of demands for the president prior to that," McCloud said. "This incident is just the icing on the cake."

"Nothing gets resolved, nothing gets done and people feel like they are not being respected or heard," she added. "So what did you expect them to do? It is their God given right to express themselves. PC, as much as they would like to, can’t take that away from them."

Earlier in the afternoon, Maurano said that Shanley could not sign the group's agreement, because some of the students' demands, such as the curriculum changes, cannot be made without a discussion with faculty. He said there is an external review of campus security occurring now, and they are working out a plan for cultural sensitivity training for faculty and staff. He emphasized, however, that the school cannot mandate that faculty participate in the training.

"Every time we try to explain that, they accuse us of political rhetoric and stalling," he said. "We don't believe that is the case."

Responses to sit-in

Tuesday evening outside Harkins Hall, Laura Rostkowski, who will graduate in 2018, said the protesters "are just doing a good thing." She said nonwhite students at the college are treated differently. Rostkowski mentioned the incident a couple weeks ago when female students were not allowed into an off-campus party.

As the night continued, several people used Twitter and Facebook to follow the students and comment on their sit-in decision. They used the students' chosen hashtag, #PCBreakTheSilence.

The majority seemed supportive, such as a tweet from the Rhode Island College Cabo Verdean Student Association: "We stand in solidarity with the PC Students! Racism is on every college campus. This must end. Stand up or stand down."

A few people were critical, such as ‏@HotNostrilsrFun, who declined to give her full name: #PCBreakTheSilence Protesters told "No" — watch them hold their breath & stomp their feet like toddlers.